Vasyl “High Tech” Lomachenko (10-1, 8KO’s) will be challenging World Boxing Association (WBA) World Lightweight Champion Jorge “Niño de Oro” Linares (44-3, 27KO’s) at Madison Square Garden on May 12th. The fight is one of the best matchups in boxing and is highly anticipated by the fans who eagerly await the ESPN+ broadcast.
Vasyl Lomachenko held a media workout day from the Boxing Laboratory gym in his home base of Oxnard, California, where he sat down with members of the press to field questions alongside his manager (and interpreter) Egis Klimas.
Lomachenko is coming off of his best victory to date, handing Guillermo Rigondeaux his first defeat as a professional. Lomachenko dominated the fight for six rounds and caused Rigondeaux to retire before the start of the seventh round, coining the nickname “No Mas Chenko” for the Ukrainian that has caused an inordinate amount of fighters to retire rather than continue in the ring.
When he was asked about his “No Mas Chenko” nickname and if he planned on making Linares quit, Lomachenko said he “Really doesn’t think about that,” but that “he does everything he can to win the fight,” additionally adding that “A win is a win.”
Lomachenko fully understands the gravity of the fight before him, where he could potentially nab his third world title in a third weight class in what figures to be his toughest test and most important fight to date.
“In my eleventh professional fight I am fighting for a third world title,” Lomachenko said with pride, adding “I may be the only person to have ever done that.”
When Lomachenko spoke of his accolades both amateur and professional he spoke with a tinge of pride in his voice. Everyone knows that he has always aimed for the top level in the sport but he claims that he never had a specific role model he attached himself to, only saying that he understood the top level fighters and knew what he had to do to achieve that level.
“I asked my father when I was six years old what the best was; Olympic Champion or World Champion,” said Lomachenko, with his father Anatoly responding to his young and ambitious son that Olympic Champion was the best in the world. To which Vasyl simply responded, “I will train for that.”
How high can Lomachenko go in weight classes is a hot topic and he curbed the talk of him going to welterweight or even super lightweight, saying that 135lbs or a 137lb catchweight was likely his best fighting weight with anything above that being too much.
The final pressing media question of note was of course on the future for him and which fighters he would like to face whether it be Manny Pacquiao or Mikey Garcia. Lomchenko particularly perked up to the mention of Garcia, saying “I like this fight, I want this fight in the future.”
